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Pakistan dumping N-waste at Sindh-Balochistan border

Pakistan has been dumping nuclear waste at the Kirthar ranges
adjacent to Khuzdar district of Balochistan. Earlier the dumping used
to take place in Arabian Sea near and around the Bay of Son Miyani
(close to Balochistan coastline) in Lasbela district and parts of Ketch
Makran district of the Sindh.

This activity poses a grave threat to human life as the dumping sites
are not very far from thickly populated areas of both Sindh and
Balochistan. Pak authorities have gone to extraordinary length to hide
their crime against humanity. First they have taken full control of the
mountainous areas that fall in the district Qambar-Shahdadkot, Dadu and
Jamshoro. And have denied access to outsiders.

Under the Nawaz Sharif regime, the NGOs, both local and
international, have lost their voice across Pakistan. Balochistan is no
exception. Even those few who are able to operate despite restrictions,
are not in a position to conduct medical or other related tests to
articulate concerns over N-waste fallout.
Zulfiqar Shah, a Pakistani Sindhi by birth, who has been forced to
live in exile has been highlighting the dangers posed by indiscriminate
dumping of N-waste by Pakistan government.

“I personally authenticate the existence of such hazardous facility
in Sindh”, he says in a recent blog post. In his assessment, the Nuclear
Power House in Karachi that has come up with a Chinese package has
always been threatening a mini-Chernobyl kind of carnage for not only
the people of Sindhi-Balochistan and nearby India but also for the
marine life, biodiversity and Indus Delta Eco-System.

Shah, who is a prolific writer, has an interesting take on the
Balochistan and his native Sindh. In his view both provinces of
Pakistan have enough ground to knock at international fora as well as
United Nations and The Hague to secure their rights.

“In the elections of 1946 (during the last days of British rule in
India), All India Muslim League, which demanded Pakistan, lost the
elections in Sindh. Sindhi nationalists formed government in the
province in alliance with Indian National Congress. It meant the voters
of Sindh rejected the idea of Pakistan which was created (by the
outgoing colonial power Britain) in 1947. This also undid the Pakistan
Resolution passed by Sindh Legislative Assembly. Besides, the political
leadership and parliamentarians who passed Pakistan Resolution quit All
India Muslim League, turned against the idea of Pakistan and won the
1946 elections in Sindh,” Zulfiqar Shah wrote on merinews.com this
September.

He may have his point. More so as he laments that Pakistan Government
had jailed the Hur fighters (Sindhi warriors) who had waged war against
colonial Britain during the Second World War. Many of these warriors
were hanged as well.

Zulfiqar Shah may be right that both Sindh and Balochistan have
strong valid documentary evidence on their rights. But it is difficult
to buy his view that these two Pakistani provinces should go solo.
Now that India has been taking about Balochistan, it will be worth
the while to hear Zulfiqar Shah’s tale of ‘stateless life’, and the
threats he has been “facing” from the dreaded ISI.

While in his native Sindh, Shah earned the wrath of Pakistan Army for
his civil rights activism, and writings. Closing down The Institute
for Social Movements, he was running, he migrated to Nepal in 2012 and
UNHCR granted him refugee status.

His writings on Pakistan in the Nepali media attracted ISI attention
and he became a marked man again. “He was given heavy metal poison by
Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, with the help of its local
facilitators” but he survived because of timely medical attention
provided by friends. Shah was forced to return to Pakistan in December
2013. Two months later in Feb 2014 he arrived in New Delhi for medical
treatment.

“He was not only denied appropriate treatment on behalf of Pakistan
High Commission, in Delhi, but was also harassed by the high commission
officials”, says a Wikipedia post. Shah and his wife Fatima staged a
protest sit-in for 285 days against Pakistan High Commission and its
facilitation by the Indian authorities, the internet posts add.

Zulfiqar Shahs of Pakistan deserve a helping hand
from the governments of the free world and their people. To lead a life
of comfort with dignity, wherever they like to live!

– by Malladi Rama Rao

Policy Research Group
http://www.policyresearchgroup.com/pakistan-dumping-n-waste-at-sindh-balochistan-border/